Single-trial evaluative conditioning can be moderated by instructed forgetting

Abstract

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a change in the valence of a conditioned stimulus (CS) due to previous pairing with an affective unconditioned stimulus (US). Several previous studies indicate that EC is related to memory of the CS-US pairs. Previous studies, however, typically cannot distinguish between the influence of CS-US knowledge during measurement and during encoding. In addition, by measuring rather than manipulating memory, they do not test the causal effect of memory on EC. The present study employed a "directed forgetting" procedure to the EC paradigm instructing participants to either forget or remember certain CS-US pairs. We found that EC effects after single learning trials were stronger for to-be-remembered than for to-be-forgotten pairs. Manipulation checks showed that the forgetting manipulation also successfully modulated memory for the target pairs and reduced both retroactive and proactive interference on memory for other pairs. Item-based analyses further demonstrated that the size of EC depended on CS-US memory. The results suggest that EC relies on available memory during measurement of the EC effect.

Keywords: Contingency awareness; Contingency memory; Directed forgetting; Evaluative conditioning; Proactive interference; Retroactive interference.